The present invention relates to electric toasters, grillers and the like. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to a toaster or griller having a vertical bay with a horizontally movable griller at either side thereof.
Standard toasters have one or more bread-receiving bays, at either side of which there is an electric resistance heating element in a fixed location. When bread is inserted into a bay for toasting, it might naturally lean to one side or the other or curl, in which case one side would be closer to a heating element than the other. This might result in insufficient toasting to one side of the bread, and burning to the other in extreme cases.
A further disadvantage of known toasters and grillers is that the heating elements are spaced away from the bread or other food item by a distance suitable for cooking a maximally thick food item. When thin bread or bread of average thickness is inserted into the receiving bay, the gap between the heating elements and the bread means that the bread must be left in the toaster for a longer period than would otherwise be necessary, had the heating elements been closer thereto. This represents an inefficient use of energy.
Furthermore, known toasters have no means of keeping bread of various thickness (typically from 8 mm to 36 mm) flat, preventing the bread from curling while toasting.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate at least one of the above disadvantages and/or more generally to provide improved energy efficiency in a toaster or griller or like cooking appliance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a toaster that can produce flat toast from bread of different thickness.
There is disclosed herein a cooking appliances comprising:
a chassis,
a pair of end plates,
a frame positioned in between and supported by the end plates,
a heating element supported by the frame,
a receiving bay adjacent the frame, and
a carriage movable within the receiving bay between a receiving/dispensing position and a cooking position, the carriage interacting with the frame during said movement to transfer the frame and thereby re-locate the heating element with respect to the receiving bay.
Preferably the frame comprises a grate including longitudinal bars along which the carriage slides to affect said frame-transfer.
Preferably the longitudinal bars are substantially straight, but with a deviated portion, wherein the extent of deviation defines the degree of frame-transfer.
Preferably there is a pair of said frames, one at either side of the bay.
Preferably the frames are biased toward one another.
Preferably the frames include pins projecting through slots in each of the end plates.
Preferably respective tension springs extends from a pin of one frame to an opposite pin of the other frame.
Preferably the deviated portion of each frame has pins extending through the respective end plates and further tension springs extend from those pins to the respective end plates to thereby bias the deviated portion of one frame away from the deviated portion of the other frame.
Preferably there is attached to each frame a heat reflector.
Preferably the heating element of each frame is between the heat reflector and the grate.